Engaging and eerily exciting read! I love the diversity of the authors and how each story was distinctive but tied to the overall theme! I am looking forward to picking up titles of several of the authors introduced to me in this book.

4.5

I love the idea behind the book and I am happy this book showcases authors of color. I am a huge horror fan so I was curious to see the different twists they would create for their short stories.. I found the book as a whole to be well written. I thought each author did a fantastic job with their pacing, building tension, and the added humor. Of course, I did prefer some stories over others but that is what's great about an anthology. There is typically a story for everyone. I'd recommend it.

It's pretty common for anthologies to be a mixed bag of stellar content and filler stories that push the page count up. But The White Guy Dies First is a collection of stand-out pieces that thrill and terrify. While the book is fantastic throughout, I'd like to draw attention specifically to "The Golden Dragon" by Kendare Blake and "Break Through Our Skin" by Naseem Jamnia. These authors did especially stellar work and I'm interested in seeing what they do next.

Such a fun collection of YA horror stories. Although they all have the premise that "the white guy dies first", I was naively mistaken that this doesn't always mean the POC doesn't die, isn't harmed, or can potentially be the villain!! I won't provide more details to avoid spoilers other than to say to check your expectations at the door.

The stories vary greatly between the sub-horror genres and if you scare easily, I think you can read these safely and still go to bed at night. Nothing was too scary in my opinion-- this is YA after all. However, the stories certainly give you a lot to think about regarding how minorities have historically been portrayed in horror.

In this collection, you'll find-- classic slasher, twisty thrillers, magic, and spiritual entities. Not all are bangers, but there's fun for everyone! I recommend this read especially if you like short stories. This would be perfect during the fall / spoopy season!

It is so rare to find a short story collection where basically every story is a winner. And this one succeeded in that for me.
All Eyes on Me: A great start to the series. A circus comes to town, and this may be Helen's chance/inspiration to always become the person she's been deeply longing to be. <spoiler>I don't love that the boyfriend just up and disappears (did he not actually die in the Hall of Mirrors?),</spoiler> but other than that a solid story.
Hedge: This one is a short one. I don't want to give anything away but this one packs quite a great story into a short package.
Best Served Cold: I liked this one a lot. A different take on cannibalism, that it is the eating of human flesh that turns you to something different. The main character is taken, tortured and slowly eaten. <spoiler>Defends themself and ends up eating the man who was eating them and turns into one of them.</spoiler>
The Protégé: I may be biased because I love magic but I loved this one and want to read the continuation of what happens after that ending in a full novel. Quick and compelling story.
Docile Girls: One of the best so far <spoiler>(if you ignore the how could she possibly do this part of the killing)</spoiler>. You'd never suspect the "docile" Asian girl.
Gray Grove: A brief tale of two girls who go in search of a ghost for their true crime podcast, to figure out what happened to a missing man. A demon haunted that swamp, who knows for how long.
Everything's Coming Up Roses: Written in the form of journal entries. We learn more about the main girl as we read more of her entries <spoiler> and how she is mentally unstable and has been murdering and burying people in her garden. </spoiler>
Heaven: I'm not sure whether I liked this one or not. While the general concept is a bit intriguing, at the same time it didn't make a lot of sense. <spoiler>(That you need to die to then be given this second chance at life in the new world covered in water.) </spoiler> Maybe it's just due to the lack of details in the world building due to it being a short story.
Break through Our Skin: Not sure how to describe this one without giving anything away. But a great story about a Iranian trans person navigating the world of white academia.
Wasps: The lengths someone will go to to protect their family home. Such a good one, and another I don't want to give away by saying too much in my review.
Hell is Other Demons: A summoning of a demon goes wrong. This story was quick and to the point. Not bad, but also not one of the best in the collection.
The Road to Hell: And what a way to go out. A haunted house story told by the house doing the haunting. Loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC of this book! Overall, I had a good time with this one. Maybe horror isn't for me, even in a short story form. I will say though, this book's concept was one of the best I've read, and I loved how the prologue and epilogue connected to each other. Below are my thoughts on each individual story:

- "All Eyes on Me" by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
2.5 stars. This was kind of an interesting story. I liked the circus aspect but some other parts felt a little unnecessary. It didn't stand out a ton. - "Hedge" by Kalynn Bayron
4.5 stars. So so good. It was creepy and horrifying in the best way. I like the brother relationship and the way that everything ended was so eerie.
- "The Golden Dragon" by Kendare Blake
3.5 stars. This one was really well written. I think it's hard to flesh out a character super well in a short story like this one, but Kendare Blake did a great job. The suspense of and thrilling aspect of it was good, even though I expected the reveal at the end.
- "Best Served Cold" by H. E. Edgmon
4 stars. I liked this story a lot. It was super creepy and I think the way it ended was pretty perfect for the story. - "The Protégé" by Lamar Giles
2 stars. This wasn't the best, but also wasn't too bad. I think it was truly creepy, but it was a little too weird for my liking. But I can totally see how people would enjoy this story.
- "Docile Girls" by Chloe Gong
5 stars. This has been the best short story form this anthology, for me, so far. It was thrilling and suspenseful, a little less horror focused in my opinion. But it had some creepy and scary stuff, but it also had commentary on stereotypes for Asian women. The stereotypes played a big part in the "horror" aspect, and that made it top-tier for me.
- "Gray Grove" by Alexis Henderson
4.5 stars. I loved this story. The influencer/podcast element was a great touch to the plot, and the creepy setting was great. I think I love the stories that mix the horror aspects with thriller aspects, because I'm not a huge fan of strictly horror stories. - "Everything's Coming up Roses" by Tiffany D. Jackson
4 stars. This story was really interesting. I loved how it was told through journal entries. Also, I think it was interesting to see the progression of the characters through the story. - "Heaven" by Adiba Jaigirdar
2 stars. I wasn't really a fan of this one. I think the concept just didn't grab my attention as much so I didn't like it. However, I will say that I tend to not like plots similar to this one, so it was expected.
- "Break Through our Skin" by Naseem Jamnia
1 star. I wasn't a huge fan of this one. It just didn't grab my attention like the other stories had.
- "Wasps" by Mark Oshiro
4 stars. I enjoyed this one. I think that the way the horror element was integrated was interesting, and it was honestly creepy throughout the whole story. The final reveal was good as well.
- "Hell is Other Demons" by Karen Strong
3.5 stars. I liked this one. It was interesting and held my attention the entire time, and the supernatural aspect was interesting.
- "The Road to Hell" by Terry J. Benton-Walker
3.5 stars. I liked the perspective from the old house, but it was also a little too weird towards the end for me. Overall, I think I'm just not a weird book girly and that's okay, but I see why others like them.


Avg rating: 3.08 stars

One of my favorite types of horror or types of book in general, are books based around films or filmmaking. Cursed films, murders on set, you name it. So to find The White Guy Dies First - a short story collection based on the overarching theme of a film director whose films ended up with 13 missing white men - I was all in.

Like any short story collection this book had some real gems and some stories that I wouldn't read again given the opportunity. Of the whole collection there was only one I thought was a real dud, but there were a handful that were stand outs to me. The back half of this book in particular was strong, as if the editor decided to save all the best stories for last. Heaven, wasps, Hell is Other Demons and The Road to Hell in particular were my absolute favorites. Ending the collection on a banger of a haunted house story that I would have happily read a full novel about.

I gave this book four stars and though I might not go back and read every story again, there are a few I'd definitely re-visit. Definitely a must read for any YA horror fans out there.

Thanks NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I love the reclaiming of horror tropes. This fun and diverse and inclusive. A great collection of short stories and the perfect creepy fall read

An inclusive anthology with a range of stories that are bound to find an audience with every kind of reader. Highlight for me was Best Served Cold and Gray Grove. Phenomenal cover too.

Thank you netgalley for the Arc, for my honest opinion. This book right here chef kiss. All of the stories are great. Just want until you get to the one with the kids at the gym man i still dream about the creepiness of that story. All of the stories made you stop and think. Please do yourself a favor a read this one.

It is an anthology, so it is hard to judge as a whole. Different authors wrote different stories within the book, but they were all very spooky and scary and fast-paced.

Thank you NetGalley for an ACR to review.

A fun and diverse reclaiming of tropes in a horror space; the stories are very aware of themselves and their place in the history of horror as it pertains to identity - both in terms of race, gender, and identity - however it is not overbearing for that knowledge. Remarkably light read given the subject.

Thank you to netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Teen for allowing me access to this book. Terry Benton did it again by gathering some of the most amazing writers and making this bomb ass book

If you love short stories and horror then this is the book for you. There were some amazing ya stories between the covers. I specifically loved the contributions of Chloe Gong and Tiffany D. Jackson. Some stories could have used some more character development but the stories were, overall, enjoyable.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Teen for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The White Guy Dies First is a collection of YA horror fiction which bucks the “POC character dies first” tradition of Hollywood horror. Most of the stories are told from a POC POV, which is extremely refreshing. The framing device felt a little forced, but overall the stories are well written and creepy enough for adults as well as young adults.

This was a very good anthology of short stories. All of the authors involved did a great job of contributing their own voices and making each individual story unique. Each story had a good way of wrapping up the ending. The cliffhangers in some added to the mysterious and spooky vibe of the book. The authors also did a good job of including enough background info to set the reader up to understand the context of the story, but not take up too much time establishing that, which is necessary in short stories. I enjoyed the wide range of topics and cast of characters. I was never bored while reading this and was engaged the entire time. Some of the stories were super spooky and some were just meh, but as a whole the entire collection was very well done.

I think I need to stick to novels and not short stories because unfortunately, none of these "scary stories" were enjoyable. Maybe it's just the various authors' writing styles that I'm not used to, but getting through the first few pages (this was an e-arc, so "pages??") was a huge struggle each new story. Was it too descriptive? Was it not eyegrabbing and enticing enough? It was also disappointing how I was hoping for horror that would, you know, keep me on edge and stuff, but somehow, the Goosebump books I read in second grade did more to scare me than these did. Not even Goosebumps. the Trap movie trailer did more to scare me than all 13 short stories. so uh. low score in the scary storytelling department.

I will say, though, "all eyes on me" was the only one apart from "docile girls" (i'm extremely biased towards chloe gong i fear. sue me. thats a joke. please please thats a joke dont actually TT) that i enjoyed. but after the death, i kind of lost the point of the story... apart from the fact that it's about finding yourself? or at least, that's my interpretation.

anyway, don't write the book off just because i did. maybe short stories are more to your liking! me personally, i think i'll stick with good ol' fashioned novels.

(note: i tried rereading a few of the stories again. i guess my interpretation of everything was incorrect? the stories aren't supposed to be horror like stephen king and stuff. it's supposed to be a little horror-y but the focus is on power imbalance? could be wrong again pt 2 but take it as you will!)

I arrived blind to this book. The title intrigued me and I was in the mood for an anthology specially when I saw some names of the author's involved in it.

There are thirteen stories in a wide range of horror genres.

Some like The Golden dragon and Docile girls resonate with me and the slasher or asian folklore like a Japanese horror movie.

I wasn't expecting to be so enthralled by some of the stories and yet there's always a few that I didn't like it. This usually happens to me with modern anthologies. But this baby has so much good in it that for me it was a four star reading. It kept me glued to the pages on my weekend.

This is solid gold for horror fans of YA. It was like goosebumps on a good afternoon. I had the thought that I would like to read something like this in my teens but now as an adult I have enjoyed so much that I have to thanks to Netgalley for the arc and the publisher for dare to make a diverse horror short stories anthology with racial representation.

Thanks to Terry J Benton Walker for editing this book. It is no easy to work with so many voices and make it so addictive.

If you don’t like body horror or are squeamish in any way, this is absolutely not for you. I want to let that be known up front.

This is a really good YA anthology of 13 horror stories written by BIPOC in which the white guy always gets what’s coming to him and I love that for all of us. There are some pretty famous YA authors included in this anthology and some I’ve never heard of but all of their stories were very compelling and unique.

Read this if you:

1) Find new life appearing from what appears to be barren soil, the endless heat of summer, and the promise of the longest day of the year to be slightly creepy.

2) Wish to be haunted

3) Love NK Jemisin’s “How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?”

As with most short story anthologies, I loved some stories and didn’t care so much for others. Standouts were:

-“The Golden Dragon”
-“The Protégé”
-“Everything’s Coming Up Roses”
-“The Road to Hell”

“The Road To Hell” was particularly good. I’d recommend this book for a bite of horror when you tire of summer!